Cameroon Project

April 20th 2016 – Geneva : 2’000 recycled soaps delivered to ASP.

This month, we have entrusted 2’000-recycled soaps to Beat Stoll, President and Founder of Actions en Santé Publique, and to his medical team. The 200 kilos of soaps will arrive in Cameroon within a couple of weeks with the goal to be distributed to the teenage mothers of the capital and their families.

April 20th 2016 – Geneva : 2’000 recycled soaps delivered to ASP.

This month, we have entrusted 2’000-recycled soaps to Beat Stoll, President and Founder of Actions en Santé Publique, and to his medical team. The 200 kilos of soaps will arrive in Cameroon within a couple of weeks with the goal to be distributed to the teenage mothers of the capital and their families.

Dr Beat Stoll, ASP Heads, Dorothée Schiesser, Chloé Belamaric

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – The SapoCycle Team

March 19th 2016 – Goodbye Africa !

My mission draws to a close ! I am leaving Cameroon after 6 weeks of unforgettable experience…

Living in a country like Cameroon taught me a lot of things. I not only had the opportunity to discover the culture of Africa but also to discover new people and the way they live and work… When I first arrived in Yaoundé, I was immediately amazed by the atmosphere. It is a bubbling, energetic and dynamic city. Workwise, I gained work experience on distinctive domains which was obviously very beneficial for me. First, as the representative of the foundation in the country, I had the opportunity to daily develop my skills in project management in an innovative environment. Then, I also had the chance to work on my communication and organisations skills. Through out the entire period, I have been surrounded by beautiful people who made this experience stunning. It was a successful mixture of take-and-give through out the whole programme. Thanks to all the people I met here, I am going back to Switzerland with my heart full of memories and gratitude.

N.B : I will be following up on the projects from SapoCycle’s headquarters in Basel, and of course, I will keep you updated on the latest news !

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

March 18th 2016 – Prevention days in Yaoundé

The past two days were full of memories. Thanks to the help of Ousmane and Ebeny, close friends of mine both living in Yaoundé, we went together in different neighbourhoods to finally educate to the handwashing!

With Ebeny, we first went to a small house in the area of “Marché des Carreaux”. Funny thing was that they were so interested in my skin color that it has been at first, a bit complicated to get their attention as they were more interested in my skin color… However, after a couple of minutes they started to truly pay attention to my words. After sharing with them the importance of the handwashing programme, their aunt brought us buckets full of water and al together, we started washing our hands! A true moment of sharing ! At a later time, we discussed again on the importance of what we just did and decided all together that the elder brother would make sure the family washes their hands properly before touching food, after going to the toilets and doing the housing chores, with a bit of clear water, soap, and finally, drying them during 15 seconds in the air. Right before leaving, I left them a bunch of soaps, so that everyone could have their own. They didn’t leave it because of the nice smell !!

The next day, Ousmane accompanied me to Tongolo, an other popular area of Yaoundé where a bunch of people were waiting for us ! I learned later that the children were so happy to be part of this event they brought their friends, parents of their friends, their sibling and so on. With a total of 25 persons (adults and children), it was a truly lively and constructive exchange. After playing to a Question-Answer session with the kids, we took three buckets, two full of clear water and put them in the middle of the courtyard. Soap in the hands, we started the washing activity without forgetting to dry them under the sunshine. It was really moving to see the elders helping the younger ones by making sure they removed all the dirt under their nails but also all the soap on the skin. The part they loved the most was when doing bubbles with the soap. Some of them didn’t want to stop !! A true moment of pleasure…

Many thanks to all these amazing people making the whole experience an overwhelming one !! Simply unforgettable moments plenty of smiles…

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

March 15th 2016 – A week full of Adventures

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Last Thursday, I visited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), based in Yaoundé. With no appointment, just my ID and some soaps in my bag. Fast, I was directed to the communications department where I have met Rosine and Merilyne – both field communication officers. They both have shown a great interest in our project !

ICRC introduced us to the Cameroon Red Cross Society (CRC) and now we are in contact with them to develop a cooperation.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

In the meantime, I arranged an appointment on, March 15th, with Dr Hubert ONIBON, WASH Specialist at UNICEF. We had a great contact which allowed us to look forward for an emerging collaboration, targeting the north area of Cameroon where cholera considerably strikes the population due to precarious hygiene situations. Because we know that handwashing helps to prevent the transmission of cholera.

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

March 12th 2016 – Some Culture Impressions !

Some pictures of a journey in South West of Yaoundé. Beautiful memories !

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

March 3rd 2016 – Visit of the Women’s Advancement Centers

I met Solange again, around 10am at the MinProFF. Together we visited 2 centers meticulously chosen according to their sanitation infrastructure.

Solange, myself and Luzette

We started with Yaoundé 5 – ASSOS area. It is the most adapted center for our project as their infrastructure allows us to educate properly to the Hand-Washing Programme, thanks to United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) that helps them a lot. We met Luzette NDONGO ZINGA, amazing woman and director of this center, which also houses the only Shelter for Women in Distress (CAD).

We did a visit of the different workshops (Aesthetics, Hairdressing, TIC, TIH subsidized by the Orange Foundation, Entrepreneurship, Decoration, Housing’s hygiene). Each workshop can benefit 10 to 12 students.

After a delicious lunch cooked by the restauration workshop, we went to Yaoundé 4 – NKOLNDONGO area. We have been welcomed by Thérèse, Director of the Centre for many years as well. She is full of ideas and also very involved in the cause. I will meet her again next week to visit the center as she was very busy to prepare to the Women and Family Fair! This show-case took place at the Hotel de Ville on March 3rd to March 6th, and had the aim to boost entrepreneurial activities of women, and to expose the product of each workshop from each centers of the MinProFF.

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

Yaounde 5 – Hair-Dressing Workshop : the teacher

Yaounde 5 – Hair-Dressing Workshop : the young-women

Yaounde 5 – TIH Workshop

Yaounde 5 – TIH workshop : a student

Yaounde 5 – The Restauration Department

Yaounde 5 – TIC Workshop

February 26th 2016 – SapoCycle intervention at ASP

Today has been the second day of the collaboration between ASP and SapoCycle, after our first meeting I talked to you about on post “SapoCycle meets ASP on the field”. I spent a full day at the headquarters.

It had the purpose to learn more about ASP, by assisting to a briefing discussion for a couple of hours. This team is truly involved in the teenage-mothers cause and it is very overwhelming to see how much of their time and personal life they give to those young ladies.

After that “introduction”, I had the chance to present SapoCycle and the cause we support : the Hand-Washing Programme. The team has paid considerable attention to this important issue, and their knowledge of the culture as well as their motivation helped me a lot to put in place a true plan of action. It has therefore been adopted with the help of everyone, and we will start in a couple of days to distribute posters to the young mothers who are nutritionally and psychologically treated, explaining how to wash their hands and their newborn’s, and why it can save lives !

I will also join some of the nursing auxiliaries during their sessions with some of the others, in order to follow-up on our project.

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

February 25th 2016 – Soap Market Research

Today, I visited a street boutique in Mballa II, the Etoudi Market, and a supermarket called “Mahima”, all three in Yaoundé, with the purpose to get more information about the different types of soaps you can find on the market.

With the help of Ousmane, my dear friend, we understood that there were always the same kind of soaps, but with different names : CCC, CCL, King Soap, Azur, Savon Sanet, MLD. They are mostly used for the washing of the clothes and the plates, but not that much for the body. Azur is the most used of them because they all say it foams more than the others !

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

Mballa II Neighborhood

Etoudi Market

Etoudi Market

Ousmane & the soaps

A merchant & his soaps

February 18th 2016 – SapoCycle meets the MinProFF

Today, I went to the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Family (MINPROFF), whose duty is to empower women and combat discrimination against them. The country made out of 10 regions, MinProFF has in total 91 formation centers. I had the pleasure to meet Solange ABE ONANA whose involvement in the women cause is huge and very much appreciated among the team since 10 years! She works in the department that promotes employment for women. Then, I wasn’t expecting to meet the Minister her-self. It was a real privilege and an honor for me.

The centers I have mentioned above promote social and professional reintegration for young women who had to suspend their schooling because of financial issues or an early pregnancy. They offer different kinds of free-courses that can either last 1 to 3 weeks or 9 to 12 months :

In addition to those “A la carte” courses, the MinProFF provides 3 core modules : Social intervention to educate to law, Project management/entrepreneurship and literacy programs.

And this is where SapoCycle would intervene! We are considering to add the hand-washing programme to these core modules. In order to do so and to have a better overall view of the scope of the project, we will first be targeting “pilot regions” – as Yaoundé – to evaluate the impact, and then duplicate the project in other regions.

Later, I will inform you about the centers we selected to start with!

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

February 17th 2016 – SapoCycle in the Noun.

The past few days have been a great step forward for our second project which is to spread the hand-washing programme in schools from the urban areas of the country.

Public School of Njibambele

We managed to get the go-ahead from the founders of The Njimbambele Public School, located in the Noun, in the west region of the country. It has been inaugurated in July 2008. Since then, the school educates students from 1st Grade to 5th Grade (CP-CE1-CE2-CM1-CM2) !

A typical classroom

For this purpose, we will later put the project in place by spending some time over there. Not only the children will be our main target, but also the school management and the teachers, from whom we will need a constant support to implement the project successfully!

“Bubbles Saving Lives” –Chloé Belamaric

February 11th 2016 – SapoCycle Meets ASP on the field.

Today has been a great step forward for SapoCycle and its will to spread the knowledge of the hand-washing programme! I have had the pleasure to meet Mr Joël DJATCHE today, coordinator, supervisor and psychologist for ASP, Actions en Santé Publique. This 2-year-old foundation provides help to teenage-mothers in their home, in need of psychological support due to the early pregnancy, and are rejected from the society and family in most of the cases… ASP managed to follow-up almost 320 mothers within a year and a half and over 80% are now in a stable state ! Couple of months ago, they have also started to include a nutritional care in the follow-up for each of the young women.

Thus, after an afternoon talk, we decided to add as a third party to this whole package. Joël has been very attentive to our goal and absolutely convince on the impact it can have. Therefore, I am pleased to meet his team on the 26th of February in order to share with them our hand-washing programme, and train them the same day. After that, I will accompany the teams in the houses to meet some of the mothers and share with them the details on the hand-washing programme.

Such a great day!

“Bubbles Saving Lives” – Chloé Belamaric

February 4th 2016 – Cameroon Project Coming Soon!

We are pleased to inform you that a new project has been decided by SapoCycle ! It will take place in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital and its agglomeration, with the goal to educate the population on the importance of the hand-washing process.

View from the sky of the Capital.

According to numbers, hand-washing with soap can prevent children deaths due to diarrheal or respiratory tract infection by nearly 50%! Therefore, after having recycled the collected soaps (thanks to Wohnwerk!), we managed to ship boxes full of the SapoCycle soaps from Basel to Yaoundé, in order to distribute them after educating the teenage mothers and their newborns on this important process. We will be in constant relation with the MINPROFF (Ministère de la Promotion de la Femme et de la Famille), and many other institutions and contacts put in contribution to complete the project. While also adapting to the local culture and through a preventive information, our mission will start this coming Monday 8th of February!

Chloé Belamaric, our project assistant sent to Yaoundé for this purpose, will be keeping you informed on each step of these wonderful projects !